Quality beef starts on the farm with quality care and feed. In this week’s Farm Fresh Podcast, local farmer, Rick Dean, talks about the two new beef barns his family recently constructed to expand their cattle operation.

From keeping the animals comfortable to managing the manure for use as fertilizer, listen to the clip to hear the whole story about how the Dean family raises beef cattle.

Tune in to WJBC radio or stream it live online every Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. for the Farm to Table segment.

Quality beef starts on the farm with quality care and feed. In this week’s Farm Fresh Podcast, local farmer, Rick Dean, talks about the two new beef barns his family recently constructed to expand their cattle operation.

From keeping the animals comfortable to managing the manure for use as fertilizer, listen to the clip to hear the whole story about how the Dean family raises beef cattle.

Tune in to WJBC radio or stream it live online every Wednesday at 12:45 p.m. for the Farm to Table segment.

Call it the Great Dinner Debate or maybe the Rural/Urban Dinner Divide. When to use the term ‘dinner’ for a meal definitely differs based on where you’re from.

Growing up on a west-central Illinois farm, my family used ‘lunch’ or ‘dinner’ for the midday meal, but the evening meal was always ‘supper.’ More metropolitan folks tend to call the noon meal ‘lunch’ and save ‘dinner’ for evening.

So who’s correct? Actually…both!

Dinner by definition is the main meal of the day – it’s not attached to a particular time. On the farm, we tended to eat the main/larger meal at noon in the middle of the working day and a lighter meal in the evening.

Folks in town often eat their bigger meal at night….unless of course it’s Thanksgiving Dinner, which all of us probably eat at noon 🙂

Anyway, Beef Stroganoff was always a family favorite for Sunday dinner (our noon meal), but you could eat it whenever you want. The secret ingredient in this rich & creamy sauce – ketchup! It adds a little punch of flavor and just the right amount of tang.

Did you know that yesterday (Aug. 27) was #NationalBurgerDay? Thank you, social media for the heads up.

Coincidentally, there’s also a headline grabbing story floating around this week about the safety of ground beef. Let’s take a better look:

From Food Insights, here’s a few facts and myths to explore about the safety of ground beef. Bottom line: bacteria doesn’t care where your beef came from – wash your hands & cook it to the right temperature (160 degrees)!

For another perspective, check out this article from High Plains Journal. The good news: almost all of the bacteria found in the “study” was not the kind that cause serious foodbourne illnesses

Reading past the headlines is important, especially when it comes to blurbs about scientific studies, as pointed out in this LA Times article.